Reporters

The French Catholic Church is facing new accusations of a sexual abuse scandal within Paris’s Foreign Missions Society, an organisation dedicated to spreading Christianity overseas. As a criminal investigation has been opened into accusations against three clergymen from the group, a FRANCE 24 investigation by journalists Karina Chabour and Julie Dungelhoeff sheds light on the allegations against the society.

With India now the world's most populous nation, providing enough jobs for young people represents a major challenge. Since contracts in the private sector do not offer job stability, millions of young Indians are vying for government jobs like those for soldiers, station masters or teachers. Although salaries are modest, these positions provide a job for life with some added benefits. These public sector jobs are accessible thanks to a yearly exam, but competition is fierce. This in turn has created a flourishing industry of coaching centres, particularly in the eastern state of Bihar. FRANCE 24’s Sadia Rao and Alban Alvarez report.

China's artificial intelligence (AI) market is currently worth €20 billion, but that figure could more than double within two years. Beijing aspires to overtake the US to become the world leader in the sector by 2030. AI technology enables machines to imitate human intelligence to generate texts, images and videos or even create original art and designs. In China, AI is already profoundly transforming both personal and workplace life. FRANCE 24's Lou Kisiela, Antoine Morel and Yan Chen report.

In France, pan-African influencers are gaining more and more followers on social media. Advocating a radical anti-Western ideology, some of them claim responsibility for the recent coups in Mali and Burkina Faso. Their narrative is similar to that of the Kremlin, which is trying to place its pawns on the African continent. FRANCE 24 profiles two French influencers who seem to have taken sides with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Electric cars promise a clean energy transition amid the ongoing climate crisis. They rely on cobalt, a highly strategic mineral necessary for electric car batteries. It is found in particular in DR Congo, which has the largest cobalt reserves in the world. It is mined there at a colossal environmental and human cost involving child labour, water and air pollution, as well as corruption. As the auto industry battles it out, we went to meet the victims of the cobalt rush. FRANCE 24's Quentin Noirfalisse and Arnaud Zajtman investigate.

Crystal meth is a highly addictive substance that's considered one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. Sometimes referred to as the "poor man's cocaine", it's made from ingredients that are easy to purchase. Consumption of crystal meth is on the rise in Europe, with large quantities being produced illegally in the Netherlands. The drug is wreaking havoc in Germany in particular, where more and more people are taking this stimulant. FRANCE 24's Alix Le Bourdon, Anne Mailliet, Fernande van Tets and Nick Spicer report.

Every year, around 90,000 people are reported missing in Japan. Most of them are found or return home, but thousands of others simply vanish. It seems they don't want to be found. There is even a Japanese word for the phenomenon: "johatsu", or evaporation. Many make meticulous plans for their disappearance and cut all ties with their families to build new lives elsewhere. But why do they do it? And where do they end up? Our reporters spoke to investigators, experts and left-behind families to try to shed light on Japan's "evaporated" people.

Transgender people, who call themselves Khawaja Siras, have always enjoyed a special status on the Indian subcontinent. For five years, Pakistan enjoyed one of the most progressive laws in the world, recognising the existence of a "third gender". But this law has just been amended. The issue of transgender rights also made headlines late last year when the Pakistani film "Joyland", the story of a love story with a transgender erotic theatre dancer, was shortlisted for the Oscars. FRANCE 24's Shahzaib Wahlah and Sonia Ghezali report.

The twin island state of Trinidad and Tobago lies between the South American coast of Venezuela and the West Indies. Home to roughly 1.5 million inhabitants of African and Indian descent, the tiny Caribbean nation has one of the world’s highest volunteer rates for the Islamic State (IS) group. Between 2013 and 2016, more than 130 Trinidadians left to join the IS group, making the island country one of the world’s biggest recruiting grounds, per capita, for would-be jihadists. Since the fall of the self-declared caliphate in 2017, 90 Trinidad and Tobago nationals, including 56 children, have been detained in camps in Syria and are unable to return home. FRANCE 24's Cyrille Charpentier and Damien Lansade report.

Clearview AI is redefining our privacy. The New York-based tech company is working to identify and compile the faces of every human being on the planet. Clearview AI claims that the database will serve as a force for good, helping to solve crimes and prevent espionage. But the risks it carries are immense. FRANCE 24’s Jessica Le Masurier and Romeo Langlois have this special report. In collaboration with ARIJ (Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism).